Insidious: The Red Door (2023) | REVIEW

Directed by Patrick Wilson — Screenplay by Scott Teems — Story by Leigh Whannell and Scott Teems.

Insidious is just one of several horror film franchises kickstarted by modern horror icons James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Eventually, both Wan and Whannell have had to pass the director’s chair off to someone else whose job it is to not just continue the style of previous entries in these series but also someone careful and considerate enough to shepherd the values of the franchise. With 2018’s Insidious: The Last Key, the fourth film in the franchise, Wan and Whannell (who has a screenwriting credit on the film) passed the director’s chair to Adam Robitel, whose Insidious film was the second prequel film in the series, as well as the second prequel film in a row to abandon the Lambert family haunting in favor of focusing on the paranormal investigators and the psychic introduced in the first two films. But eventually, the Lambert family haunting narrative that Wan and Whannell made us so invested in with Insidious Chapters 1 and 2 (released in 2010 and 2013, respectively) had to continue. That’s where scream king and star of the original two films, Patrick Wilson, comes in — because he wasn’t just convinced to return in a significant role for the fifth and potentially final film, he also signed on for it to be his feature directorial debut. 

Patrick Wilson’s Insidious: The Red Door, which is the longest film in the series thus far by only a few minutes, takes place nine years after the events of Insidious: Chapter 2, in which Josh Lambert (played by Patrick Wilson) and his son Dalton (still played by Ty Simpkins) had their memories of the traumatic haunting and astral projection into the dangerous world-between-worlds known as the Further suppressed intentionally so as to not be scarred beyond repair or susceptible to another haunting. Now, nine years later, Josh is divorced from his children’s mother, Renai (played by Rose Byrne), as one of the side effects of having his memory suppressed is that he feels like something is off — like he’s lost the plot and everything is hazy. His relationship with his eldest son, Dalton, is also strained, and he, too, has complicated emotions due to the repressed memories. When Josh drops Dalton off at college, he decides to figure out if something is wrong with him, and, meanwhile, Dalton starts seeing things after trying to connect with his innermost self during one of his college art classes. 

Often compared with The Conjuring — the other horror franchise co-created by James Wan and starring Patrick Wilson — the Insidious film franchise is its lower-budgeted and less revered film series sibling. In spite of the fact that every single sequel and prequel to the original Insidious film was met with mixed-to-poor critical reception, the Insidious films always find enormous success in theaters, and the film series has a fervent fanbase. Patrick Wilson’s entry in the film series — The Red Door — has a reported production budget of $16 million, thus making it the most expensive of the bunch, but it should have no problem making the studio loads and loads of money. If the future of these films were decided solely on box office success and not creative ingenuity or critical success, then these films could seemingly go on forever, as the theater-going audience has always had an appetite for them. The same will be the case for Patrick Wilson’s directorial debut, which could also serve as a nice and fitting conclusion if the studio decides to abandon the film series going forward. 

I will admit that I prefer the Conjuring films to the jump-scare and astral projection over-reliant Insidious films, but nevertheless, I’ve seen these films quite a few times and I enjoy them for what they are in spite of how mixed I am on most of them. That first film is such a brilliant and instantly iconic low-budgeted James Wan Poltergeist-homage. However, recently I’ve discovered that Wan’s direct sequel doesn’t entirely work for me, even though I admire Wan’s attempts to make it more of a domestic disturbance film and his third-act attempt at non-chronological fill -in-the-blanks storytelling. On the other hand, Leigh Whannell’s incorrectly titled prequel Insidious: Chapter 3 has honestly grown on me over the years, in spite of how generic parts of it are. And then there is Adam Robitel’s prequel Insidious: The Last Key, which kind of lost me due to failing comedic relief and unsatisfying utilization of a well-designed creature. 

Nevertheless, I was hopeful that Patrick Wilson could bring the franchise back on track with something more emotionally affecting but still true to what made that first one resonate with audiences. While it isn’t the most original film of the bunch (though, truthfully, none of the films are deeply original), I was won over by the focused narrative and competent filmmaking from Patrick Wilson, the first-time director. Like with Whannell’s feature debut Chapter 3, The Red Door showcases Patrick Wilson as a competent horror filmmaker who knows what makes these films tick and is able to replicate it and, to a certain extent, put his own spin on it. The primary drawback here is once again familiarity, as these films’ formula is maybe overdone at this point. 

Wilson’s film gets a lot out of getting the original cast back together. I was glad to see Ty Simpkins, who is decent here, return to the franchise, and I think it was a smart decision to pair his closed-off character with Sinclair Daniel’s Chris Winslow. For her first major release, Sinclair Daniel has a lot of charisma here, and she is fun to watch with Simpkins. Though Rose Byrne is under-utilized in a role that basically only exists as a plot device, it is also nice to have her back. Patrick Wilson, whose vocals you can also hear on a track during the closing credits alongside Swedish rock band ‘Ghost,’ always brings such sincerity to his work in these franchises, and if you thought pulling double duty behind the camera in any way hindered him then you thought wrong. Wilson did a solid job both in front of and behind the camera. 

The Red Door is especially concerned with mental health and repressed trauma, and, from its first scare to its last moment in the Further, there is a strong thematic current running through it. The Red Door is ultimately about a father trying to connect with his son, in more ways than one. I thought Wilson’s flick really succeeded in selling and earning that aspect of the film. I totally bought into this idea of intergenerational trauma, and I think the film features multiple moments that communicate that succinctly. 

Other than feeling familiar, The Red Door suffers somewhat from a slightly rushed third act, which maybe doesn’t lean enough into the terror and absurdity of the creature that once terrorized the Lambert family. Furthermore, I think the film could’ve gotten more out of its focus on the inherent darkness and supernatural power of the kind of art Dalton creates. The film gets a couple of good jump scares out of his art, but it never becomes quite as unsettling as, say, the painting of the nun in The Conjuring 2. I should also say that there were a couple of unnatural lines that took me out of the film, such as Simpkins’ character referring to his little brother as ‘little brother.’

There are definitely some notable things in The Red Door that are genuinely memorable. I enjoyed seeing a younger cast take this franchise to a college setting, and I really liked how the ghost walking ever so slowly toward Patrick Wilson’s character in the film’s first truly creepy scene figured into the central theme. This film should also be commended for featuring a genuinely horrifying and effective sequence that sets this film apart from the other films in the film series. I’m specifically referring to the claustrophobic and deeply unsettling MRI-machine sequence. Yes, it’s punctuated by a startling jump scare, but it’s the best jump scare in the film — pure nightmare fuel. It also happens to be one of multiple moments in which Wilson showcases that he understands how to use audience anticipation to tighten the tension and make eventual jump-scares effective. 

Some audience members may be disappointed to learn that Insidious: The Red Door doesn’t actually venture beyond the red door sill as much as some marketing may have led them to believe. Nevertheless, Patrick Wilson’s Insidious: The Red Door is arguably the best Insidious sequel. Wilson’s film bets big on your level of investment in the original cast’s characters by focusing on their intergenerational suppressed trauma, and the actor-turned-director succeeds in replicating the style of previous films while still adding in a relatively fresh and potentially nightmare-inducing scare of his own. Patrick Wilson got the job done with a solid horror flick that isn’t afraid of being sentimental.

6.5 out of 10

– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.